InxGa1-xN refractive index calculations

The growth of InxGa1-xN Wurtzite structure is a well established fact. It permits to design optoelectronic devices such as laser diodes or LEDs, from the near ultraviolet to the infrared light spectrum. This sweeps indeed, the whole of the visible spectrum and, hence, appears to be very useful to the recent development of liquid crystal display screens, or designing photodiodes and perhaps solar cells (after studying their energetical efficiencies). Nevertheless, refractive indices of InxGa1-xN structure have not been studied. The refractive index of such structures is increasing from the GaN refractive index to the InN one, with therefore, a bowing of the curve due to the lattice mismatch between these two constituting binary alloys. The index is, in a certain range of the n(x) characteristic, less than the GaN one. This seems to be particularly interesting in the ;integrated optics domain or optical waveguides realization, because the growth of GaN is easier than the growth of InxGa1-xN. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.